YRE International Competition

All submissions must:  

• Include the following information:  1) Name of author(s), 2) Age of author(s) on day of submission to the National Competition, 3) Name of registered school or group, 4) Country of residence, 5) Title of entry, 6) Link(s) to dissemination

• Fulfil the Format & Structure and the Dissemination criteria for its category. 

• Be in written and/or spoken English or must have English subtitles.  

• Focus on real and current local issues with links to the global context.  

• Present possible and constructive solutions supported by credible sources e.g., local stakeholders, experts, academic research, etc.  

• Include a credit role, footnotes, or a bibliography with the sources of images, video footage, music and information not created by students.  

• Identify and provide a brief explanation of how the submission is related to one or more Sustainable Development Goals. Submissions can focus on any of the Sustainable Development Goals, but an environmental lens is always needed.  

A core part of the YRE programme is Step 4 Dissemination. This is because YRE’s mission is to encourage youth to use their voices to draw attention to environmental issues they see in their communities.  

The following four levels and assessment scores are where we think young people’s voices need to be heard and will be used to assess all types of entries: 

• Personal (disseminate through Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram / Instagram Reel, X, Tik Tok, Snapchat, YouTube / Youtube Shorts or a Blog) - 1 Point. 

• School/ Scout Community (disseminate through setting newspaper, website, or as a poster or flyer in the meeting building) - 1 Point. 

• National Operator Organisation (disseminate through the national website or social media platforms of your country’s National Operator) - 1 Point. 

• Local and National Media (disseminate through local and national media channels such as the radio, TV, or newspapers) - 2 Points. 

Judges may assign a score of 0-5 based on how well the submission meets the five criteria within each entry category listed below. Points are: 5=Excellent, 4=Very Well, 3=Well, 2=Well, 1=Qualifies and 0=Does Not Qualify. Participants are strongly encouraged to meet as many of the criteria as possible to submit quality work and improve their chances of getting maximum points.  

The International Jury assesses the entries on the YRE Competition Exposure page. It is therefore particularly important that the National Operators ensure that the entries are correctly presented on Exposure.  

In addition, the International Jury is at liberty to not award in the case of too few submissions and to give more than one award in the case of exceptional entries in one or more age categories. The International Jury may also award or deduct two points for any journalistic and environmental features of submissions based on their professional backgrounds.



For all assessment criteria please adhere to the word counts, character counts and video timings outlined in the Media Category Assessment Criteria.

Any national submissions sent to FEE that exceed these criteria limits will not be considered for shortlisting to the International Jury.

Get to know our YRE International Jury here

The YRE programme values academic honesty and the use of credible sources. Any facts, statistics, images, etc. that a student uses in their entry (article, photo, or video) should be listed in a ‘Reference’ list at the end of the entry and in-text footnotes are encouraged. 

Remember: While sourcing information, remember these entries aren't academic pieces but journalistic and media-oriented content. Such information is distinguished by featuring insights from knowledgeable individuals in the field.

• Article – use of AI will not be accepted. National Operators to indicate upon submission to FEE if the article has been translated through an online application, translation AI is allowed in this instance.  

• One Take Photo– use of AI will not be accepted.  

• Staged Campaign Photo– use of AI and other editing applications is welcomed and encouraged.  

• Photo Story of 3-5 Photos – use of AI will not be accepted. 

• Long-form Reportage Video –use of AI to generate content will not be accepted. Editing programmes will be accepted. 

• Short-form Campaign Video- use of AI and other editing applications is welcomed and encouraged.  

• International Collaboration – Only open for Article and Long-form Reportage categories, therefore the use of AI is will not be accepted.  

Ethical Journalism & Plagiarism
Legal matters are especially important in today’s media. It is your responsibility to be aware of the rules and regulations relating to media content (text, photos, and music) when you work on your submission. Any submissions that FEE finds to be of dubious legal standing will be ineligible to win the International Competition. If you have any doubts on this matter, please contact the National Operator in your country or YRE International head office. 

Plagiarism, or using someone else’s ideas, words, images, videos, and/or music and representing it as your own original work, is a serious offense. Therefore, it is especially important that you properly cite any ideas, text or other media that are not your own. You can cite your sources using footnotes, credit rolls for videos, or a bibliography. There are several online sources where you can check your written work, such as articles, for plagiarism. As previously stated in the criteria, all photos, articles, and videos should be your own original work, and in the case of videos a minimum of 70 percent of the video should be your own video footage, images, etc. When reporting on issues and events, it is likely you will conduct additional research on your topic – and we encourage this! Just make sure that you can show where you found your information by citing it.

Use of Music for Video Entries
It is illegal to copy or otherwise infringe upon the rights of copyright-protected music, photos, and text, without the written permission of the copyright rights-holder. Obtaining music licences to permit the use of copyright-protected material, even for a not-for-profit video, can be problematic. As such, it is strongly recommended that you do not use copyright protected music in a video entry.  

Please note that many platforms currently review whether uploaded videos use copyright-protected work. Work found to be using copyright-protected material is usually detected by copyright bots and suspended from the platform. In some countries, infringement of copyright law is enforced, and punishable by hefty fines and a criminal record. Please be aware of your national copyright laws. TIP: Young Reporters might know some young musicians who can create their own original musical score. As an alternative, you can resort to the YouTube Audio Library, which offers royalty-free tracks made available for any not-for-profit creative purpose, and do not require written permission from the rights-holder.  

Music may also be published under an open content licensing scheme, such as the Creative Commons licence. There are still terms, conditions, and restrictions applicable for music taken from the above sources, so please ensure these are fully observed and there is no copyright infringement in your video entry. 

Ethics for Visual Journalism
The National Press Photographers Association is a professional society that promotes the highest standards in visual journalism. They have created a Code of Ethics that is very relevant for YRE students who report through photography and videography in particular: Go to Code of Ethics page

Use of Images in Articles and Video
When using images in articles or videos, it is important to ensure that they can legally be used and shared by others. Open source and Creative Commons licensed images may be used, if attribution and/or the source is provided through footnotes or a bibliography.  

Consent
When conducting interviews or taking photographs of people, it is important to receive informed consent from your subject. Therefore, make sure to explain why you would like to interview or photograph them beforehand. You should explain what their interview or photo will be used for (National or International YRE Competition), and where you plan to share your final work. 

DECLARATION OF CONSENT FOR PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION AND USE OF VIDEO/PHOTO/ARTICLE SUBMITTED

When signing up to this competition, you agree that we can process your personal data provided in the submission form and given to us during the competition. We process the data so that we can register your participation, judge the submission, save what you have submitted and publish your submission on the international level throughout the FEE network and its partners if you are chosen as a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place winner. Necessary permission, e.g., for photographing children's faces are the responsibility of the author and must, therefore, be sought. All 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will be saved in our archives and used by the FEE network to promote the winners and the programme. 

You always have the option to withdraw your consent and your submission to the competition. 

The Data Controller is: 
Foundation for Environmental Education 
Scandiagade 13, 2450 Copenhagen SV, DENMARK 
+45 70 22 24 27 
info@fee.global